Ten percent of Australian adults may have used the AI bot for health-related information in the past six months, with 61% of those asking for clinical advice. Yikes.
Almost 10% of a nationally representative sample of Australian adults used ChatGPT to obtain health-related information in the past six months, according to new research.
Researchers from the University of Sydney surveyed 2951 participants in the Life in Australia panel, asking them three questions about their ChatGPT use.
Of the 2034 over 18s who completed the survey, 9.9% said they had asked the generative AI app for health-related information during the preceding six months.
Of those 187 people, 61% (115) asked a question considered “higher-risk”; that is, it related to taking action that would typically require clinical advice, rather than general health information.
The proportion was larger for people born in mainly non-English speaking countries than for Australian-born respondents, and for those who spoke a language other than English at home.
The research, published in the MJA, also found that the number of people using ChatGPT for health-related questions is likely to grow – 38.8% of the people who had not used the app in the preceding six months said they would use it to ask health-related questions in the next six months, even though trust in the app was “moderate”.
At least one higher risk-type question would be considered by 375 participants (24.6%). The proportion was larger for participants with year 12 education or less.
The authors, led by Professor Kirsten McCaffery, said their numbers could be considered “conservative”, given the rapid growth in AI technology and the availability of similar tools.
“The types of health questions that pose a higher risk for the community will change as AI evolves, and identifying them will require further investigation,” said McCaffery et al.
“There is an urgent need to equip our community with the knowledge and skills to use generative AI tools safely, in order to ensure equity of access and benefit.”
Read the full study here.
